Toby Guillette

Last night the Triathlon Club of San Diego kicked off the 25th anniversary year for the club with the January club meeting and a visit from 2008 Ironman World Champion Craig Alexander. Dr. John Martinez hosted over 300 athletes at the Coast Wellness and Sports Center in San Diego for the meeting where Bob Babbitt of +Competitor Magazine+ and John Duke of +Triathlete Magazine+ interviewed "Crowie."

+Left to right: John Duke, Craig Alexander, Dr. John Martinez+

It was a great event and I was impressed by Craig Alexander’s class. When he spoke about the team of people, who are responsible for supporting the daily grind in an endurance athlete’s life, it really hit home. He is the real deal and has worked incredibly hard, “blue collar” style, for many years to earn his place at the top.

Other highlights included a cameo appearance by Active Expert and 6-time Ironman World Champion Dave Scott plus I got to meet and chat with Xterra triathlete and coach, Trevor Glavin, whose blog I’ve been following for the past few months.

Stay tuned for my next post with views from the red carpet at the Endurance Sports Awards this weekend!

This weekend I ran the Diamond Valley Lake Marathon as my final training run for the Sedona Marathon on 2/7. The conditions during the race couldn't have been better: cloudy skies that slowly cleared to dry the soft dirt trails around a beautiful lake surrounded by mountains... my favorite!


Before the race

The theme of the day for me was consistency. I wanted to average an 8-minute mile pace to finish in 3 hours and 30 minutes. I knew this was a doable training pace that wouldn't jeopardize my chances to run well in Sedona so I cruised with the following splits:

1. 7:37
2. 7:55
3. 8:01
4. 8:10
5. 8:00
6. 7:53
7. 7:52
8. 7:53
9. 7:38
10. 8:01
11. 8:00
12. 8:02
13. 7:50
14. 8:02
15. 8:09
16. 8:22
17. 8:20
18. 8:18
19. 7:36
20. 8:00
21. 8:00
22. 8:14
23. 8:12
24. 8:05
25. 8:05
26. 8:01

Finish Time: 3:29:40
Overall Place: 20 of 136
Age Group: 2 of 14
Results






Amanda, Austin and me post race, 2nd place age group award

I'm right where I need to be to bounce back and throw down a faster effort in Sedona in 10 days. As I mentioned in my last post Pulse Check I'll be running alongside my brother who is in peak marathon shape and will push me to dig deeper and hold a mid-to-low 7-minute mile pace. In the 2008 Sedona Marathon, a sub-3:30 was a top 10 overall finish. I've got the motivation to make it happen so stay tuned to see if I pull it off :)



On the drive home from the race

I'm back to San Diego after holidays in New England with my family and I'm feeling happy, healthy and ready for another great year. I’ve hit the ground running and the next month is stacked with exciting endurance industry events.

My last long run before the *Sedona Marathon* on 2/7 is this weekend at the Diamond Valley Lake Marathon. The course is flat as a pancake so I will focus on a proper warm-up and cool down with race pace in between. My good friend Austin, who raced the Silverman 70.3 the same day I did the Silverman 140.6, will also be running so we’re stoked for another fun race and road trip together.

Next week, Dr. John Martinez at Coastal Sports and Wellness Center will host the January TCSD club meeting and the 2008 Ironman World Champion, Craig Alexander. After attending the interview with Chrissie Wellington in October, it’s going to be great to see "Crowie" and something tells me we’ll be seeing him again 2 days later at this year’s Endurance Sports Awards.

!ESA_Group.jpg!
*ESA 2008* +left to right: Mike Reilly, Toby Guillette (Me), Gale Bernhardt, Jesse Hammond+

The morning after the ESAs, I’ve volunteered to help with the Xterra Mission Gorge 15K. I ran the course on Sunday and for a 15K, this course is legit. There are always pros in town for the ESAs so it will be cool to see who shows up to throw down.

Then I’m off to run the Sedona Marathon with my brother. He’s super-fit right now so I’m hoping I can hang with him for the 26.2. I also got a call from the young ultra running prodigy, Nick Hollon, letting me know he’ll be toeing the line as well. But after the 26.2, I’ll still be thinking about Jimmy from the MCM community and my x-girlfriend who are both running the Rocky Raccoon 100 in Texas that day.

Then it's right off the plane from Sedona to this year’s Running USA Conference here in San Diego. That weekend, we have a group ride planned to preview the Palomar Mountain climb in Stage 8 of the Tour de California, the weekend before the TdC comes to town for its final stage!

As you can see, the next month is action-packed and I’ll do my best to keep you updated along the way. To better serve you, my daily posts can be found on Twitter @TobyGuillette and/or you can subscribe to my RSS feed for auto-updates when I publish a blog here. Thanks for joining me for another great year of adventure!

Mount Whitney rests at 14,505 feet above sea level, making it the highest summit in the contiguous United States and a highly coveted ascent to hikers and climbers alike. There are multiple routes to the top ranging from day hike to alpine ascent.

In the video below, my good friend Albert Yu-Min Lin and his climbing partner Charles Ince, embarked upon what may have been the first winter “ukulele” ascent of Mount Whitney’s East Face. Enjoy this one-of-a-kind video of that climb…


Whitney East Face Winter Climb from Albert Lin on Vimeo.

*They made it look easy, didn’t they? What about you – what would you bring with you to the top?*

Check out more punishment reports from the Pullharder.org crew at www.pullharder.org